Heat Wave News!

Is it hot enough for you?

In 1911, fans and ice were luxuries, air conditioning unknown. “On July 4, temperatures hit 103 in Portland, 104 in Boston (a record that still stands), 105 in Vernon, Vt., and 106 in Nashua, N.H., and Bangor, Maine. At least 200 died from drowning, trying to cool off in rivers, lakes, ponds and the ocean – anything wet. Still more died from heat stroke. The 1911 heat wave was possibly the worst weather disaster in New England’s history, with estimates of the death toll as high as 2,000” (from here).

But we’ve got them all beat, with this weather broadcaster letting us know it was 162 degrees in Los Angeles last week. So let’s think about something fun that’s coming up, and maybe by then, our heat wave will have broken.

We’re looking forward to our discussion of your favorite sewing and quilting tools at our IEMQG Zoom Meeting on September 5th. We all have favorite devices for sewing. Is yours a common one, or a specific one, or an unusual one? Our program will consist of sharing our favorite and important tools that we use while creating our quilts. Please send in a picture and include your name, the tool’s name (if it is a weird or unusual one) and how it is used, why it is so important, and any variations that may make it versatile. Then post it on an email to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com with the subject line, “Tool Time.” Please send images by September 3, 2020, and watch your emails for your Zoom links to the meeting.

At our Guild Meetings in the past, we’d chat about our lives, share the treats at the back of the room while catching up with each other. We didn’t have many responses this month, but we appreciated Lynn Hanna’s thoughtful email, talking about registering for QuiltCon and thinking about Road. Some excerpts are below:

For QuiltCon, I spent a long time searching teacher’s websites, looking at their work, and thinking about the class they would be teaching. I didn’t find any classes that struck my fancy or that seemed worth the investment of time, energy, and money.

“I did however sign up for four lectures. I don’t recall the actual titles, but they are about photographing quilts (something I know nothing about), and interviews with judges and winners. I want to have a quilt in a major show someday, something that has eluded me so far. As far as concerns for the show, I learned from a virtual quilt show I attended in April this year. I usually spend all day enjoying the quilts and vendors, often several days. I found the virtual event well done for the short planning time they had to put it together, but I also only spent a couple hours instead of days.

“I loved having the quilt labels on my computer because I could read them without bending over the plastic tape line and having my glasses fall off as I try to get close enough to read them. I also liked that they posted the back sides. I did miss the “in person” look though. A photo is good, but a real quilt is so much better. I will miss the energy, eavesdropping on what others have purchased or enjoyed, running into a friend, or having lunch with someone from another part of the world and hearing a bit of their story.

“I did not register for Road to CA. I think it will be cancelled, and I didn’t want to get in the mess of refunds or rescheduling. I had several trips planned and lots of theater events scheduled this spring. All were cancelled eventually, but each one had a different procedure to resolve payments. I spent several days calling to cancel, then tracking that the refunds actually came through. Sign up for Road came in the middle of that and I just decided not to bother.

“If Road still happens, I will struggle to decide if I go or not. I have remained isolated. I can’t imagine expanding my bubble to attend the show, inside, with thousands of others, no matter how many masks and hand washing stations are available. I will be disappointed to miss the excitement, and will be envious of others willing to take the risk to enjoy the show.”

Elizabeth Eastmond writes: “I appreciated the fact that QuiltCon was sensitive to the realities of our COVID-19 pandemic and thought the idea of a “virtual” meeting made a lot of sense. I signed up for Daisy Auschehoug’s Illustrator 2 class, as I took her Illustrator 1 class in February and really learned a lot. I don’t have Illustrator, as I don’t want to pay the monthly fee. Instead I use Affinity Designer (actually the whole Affinity Suite) and it worked just fine in that class. I signed up for QuiltCon’s extra bit, and my schedule informed me after the fact that I’ll be getting up in the very early hours of the morning to participate!

“By the time I totaled up all the lectures I wanted to see, it was the price of the all-lecture pass, so I went that direction. Now I can see whatever lecture I want. I am a little bummed that all the recordings go away at the end of the meeting. It would have been nice to draw upon that for several weeks, but I’m just going to block out those days and make my own QuiltCon buzz!

“I did not sign up for any classes at Road to California, both for the reasons that Lynn states, but also because I had taken way too many classes this year and wanted a break. Given that our state still hasn’t opened up attendance at large-scale events at this point, I rather doubt I’ll be attending in person. I had been going around teaching at Guilds and giving lectures, and was stunned when this part of our world sort of stopped. But I’ve converted my workshops and lectures to a Live-Online presentation, and am pretty comfortable with this format. I wish that Road would follow QuiltCon’s lead and figure out how to do the same.”

Write us an email with some of your thoughts about September’s monthly topics (we have two for each month):

• How has your fabric shopping changed since Covid-19 hit? Do you do more online shopping?
• Has it been harder or easier to sew since the quarantine? Both? Neither? In what way?

The full list of monthly topics are found at the end of this post. We post your responses mid-month, so open up your email and shoot us a few lines, as we’d like to hear what you think, our friends and fellow quilters. You can write a little or you can write a lot; they will be edited for clarity and flow. Send to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com

• Send in your pictures and descriptions for Tool Time. Deadline is September 3rd. Please write “Tool” in the subject line.
• Send in your pictures for Show and Share for our September General Zoom Meeting. Deadline is September 3rd. Please write “Show and Share” in the subject line.
• Send in your ideas, thoughts and comments about either/both of our topics. We’ll publish them mid-September, but don’t procrastinate. We want to hear about your experiences.

Thank you!